Third week in France

This is the second full week of classes and I have a newfound appreciation for Bowdoin. My professor has demonstrated that the “laissez faire” attitude in France should not be carried into the classroom, as it is not particularly conducive to teaching. Throughout the grammar portion of my class she makes error upon error, and usually doesn’t catch them unless one of the students questions it further. For instance, she butchered the present tense conjugation of an ER verb (which is perhaps the most used category of verb used in French), and insisted that when aucun(e) is used to replace a plural object, it has an s added to the end, which is most definitely not the case, ever (we consulted the internet and our phonetics professor, both which were in agreement with our thoughts). However, if one pays close attention in class, there are a few gramatical gems to be found, elevating my written French to a slightly higher level. The phonetics portion of class is (as my British friend David says) stupendous. Although my prononciation is very good for an American, I am learning many colloquial phrases and to decipher the complex series of noises that is spoken French.

This past weekend Nico visited me from Germany, which was long overdue, but worth the wait. He arrived late Friday night, which we spend catching up over a bottle of his favorite German wine.

On Saturday we set out to find the Hard Rock Café because Nico’s friend collects their shirts. Before leaving the apartment, we made sure to not know where we were going and took the metro to what we thought was the general vicinity. After spending a good three hours walking about, we had found the Japanese neighborhood, the Opera house, an American style diner where we ate lunch, the many stores of Lafayette, and countless other cafés, but sadly, not the Hard Rock. Finally, after asking for directions from several people (all who knew the general area, but not the specifics), we found it.

Next stop: Eiffel tower.

However, once again, there was a long line, so rather than wait to climb up, we headed over to Montparnasse, which not only is taller than the Eiffel tour, but gives one a spectacular view of the tower.